A Minor Heresy
The Inquisition are asked to assist the capture of a rogue psyker on Cetus Minor. They are attacked by a cult called "The Way of Purification" which leads back to the Akright Family. Eventually Marinus Akright is traced to Ephramundi in the Kaprun sub-sector. He is killed and a trio of deamonhosts are destroyed, but they were holding closed a warp rift which then opens and over the next few days the planet is invaded and overwhelmed by deamons. The Cobalt Scions are brought in to hold back the enemy and assist evacuation, and the Grey Knights are called.
Briefing
+++AUTHOR: Marshal Laurentina Faustus, Adeptus Arbites, Cetus Minor;
+++DESTINATION: The Obelisk, Cetus Major;
+++SUBJECT: Apprehension of a Rogue Psyker
My Lords and Ladies,
There is a rogue psyker loose upon Cetus Minor. In the city of Aenor there have been seven murders by witchcraft and four psychic assaults over the last month. We have several witnesses and some physical evidence, and are currently chasing down some promising leads.
Whilst my Arbites are dedicated and loyal servants of the Imperium, the psykers we have brought in to date have largely been scared and on the run, or at the very least untrained and uncontrolled. This one has shown an ability to control their powers we have not had to deal with before.
We will do our duty, whatever the cost, but if you find yourselves able to lend assistance, we would be far more likely to be able to bring them in alive and perhaps find out how they came to control their powers. It’s most likely they are a trained member of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica that has gone rogue, but there are other possibilities and it would be best to find out for sure.
Your faithful Servant,
Laurentina Faustus,
Marshal,
Adeptus Arbites
+++MESSAGE ENDS
Jailbreak
Atticus leads Nadiya and Airi to Cetus Minor to assist. They join a squad of Arbites but on the way back to the Precinct-Fortress are ambushed by heavily armed cultists led by a psyker. They are forced to take shelter in the shrine their damaged Rhino crashed into. All of the Arbites are taken out of action, and whilst Airi does shoot the lead psyker she is forced to duck for cover due to her lack of power armour and when she looks again he is gone. The cult take heavy casualties and is driven off without rescuiing the prisoner, but several innocent civilians are caught in the crossfire.
- Arbites casualties
- Davis is dead.
- Roboutte was shot in the guts and will have a slow and painful recovery.
- Rauss was shot in the chest and collapsed a lung. They will never work the field again.
- Tellastion is dead.
- Gai was shot in the leg, and should be back to work in a few weeks.
- Taiha is dead.
Afterwards the prisoner is interogated. The captured witch is called Stanislava Langlus. He was found by a fellow psyker he knows only as Mavuto, who trained him and strengthened his powers and connection to the warp. The group call themselves The Way of Purification and believe that the warp can be used for the betterment of humanity.
Only the most recent murder, the one witnessed, was him. The others he assumes are Mavuto. He isn’t aware of any other psykers in the group, although someone did mention there had previously been at least one more that Mavuto was training. He was instructed to kill his target as she was a member of the group who was “doubting the Way”.
The team also noticed the cult was well armed with surplus military weapons, including the missile launcher used to wreck their transport and various meltas and heavy bolters. The equipment had been stolen by Lieutenant Ciar Arkwright of the PDF. She worked in supplies. As is reasonably common, she was bought her commission by her moderately wealthy family. By the time the authorities caught up with her, she had committed suicide.
The equipment was being diverted during transit, then Lieutenant Arkwright was signing off the inspection. Two drivers have been arrested, they claim to have been in the pay of Lieutenant Arkwright but ignorant of the Way of Purification. All fingers firmly pointed at her as ringleader of the operation.
A thorough review of the stores to find out what is missing, cross references with what was recovered from the battle at the chapel, suggests about 95% of the missing equipment is now recovered. It’s hard to be perfectly accurate due to the use of explosives and melta weaponry in some places.
The same burner phone that contacted Lieutenant Arkwright also called the Arkwright manor.
Arkwright Manor
Inquisitor Lear took over the investigation and took Nadiya and Maddox to investigate the Arkwright Manor, a large manor in the countryside outside Aenor. From their investigation they knew that the familiy of minor nobility with shipping concerns consisted of Sir Tarqik, Lady Adebola, Lieutenant Ciar (now deceased) and Marinus. The house guards attempted to delay the Inquisition as much as possible, and Maddox went a little too deep into one of thier heads and swtiched sides breifly, but the Inquisition prevailed. Inside they ended up battling a deamonhost in the burning library. In a rather selfless move, Nadiya used her power-armoured body to protect Ash, and Ash destroyed her bionic arm whilst overheating her plasma pistol to kill the deamonhost.
They found a family portrait which revealed Marinus Arkwright was the psyker Mavuto. They also found the dead body of Lady Adebola, who appeared to have been shot by her husband. They found a hidden chamber under the Library that seemed to be the place to create and perhaps imprison deamonhosts. There was evidence of chemical accelerancts used in the fire in the library, suggesting arson. Most of the corpses in the Library have been tentatively identified as PDF or household guards based on the remains of their weapons and body armour, but one corpse in the centre was found near some kind of las or hellpistol and didn’t seem to have any armour but did have a fair amount of jewellery. Looking back through public records it seems Marinus Arkwright used to attend public events with his family as a child, but disappeared out of the public eye when he was a young teenager.
An alert was sent out to local Imperial authorities for Marinus Arkwright aka Mavuto, with a warning that he is a dangerous psyker and not to be engaged lightly.
Ephramundi
Months later...
TBC